MONTGOMERY, W.Va. — Two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Friday aiming to stop the West Virginia University Board of Governors from moving the WVU Tech campus from Montgomery to Beckley.
Fayette and Kanawha counties previously agreed not to sue WVU, but former WVU Tech students Dorothy Phillips and William Willis are attempting to keep the school in the town that sits on the Kanawha-Fayette county line. Their basis is a legislative mandate from 2006 requiring WVU Tech headquarters to remain in Montgomery.
The lawsuit alleges WVU Tech has declined steadily in enrollment and condition since WVU took limited control in 1996. It also asserts Tech’s engineering program has dropped from a No. 4 ranking nationally to No. 78 because WVU favors the engineering department at its main campus in Morgantown.
The lawsuit accuses the Board of Governors of attempting “to relocate and otherwise diminish, and neglect the engineering program at (Tech),” by advertising a move to Beckley without any legislative right to do so.
The move to Beckley is planned for the fall of 2017.